


The One About the Redhead

by hermybookworm



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/F, red-haired ladies, set directly after The Girl With the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo, spnhiatuscreations
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-10
Updated: 2015-07-10
Packaged: 2018-04-08 17:19:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4313667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hermybookworm/pseuds/hermybookworm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is for week six of the SPN Hiatus Creations challenge: red-haired ladies. Charlie just learned that the world is a whole lot larger than she originally thought. She knows she needs to leave, get out, become somebody else, but she's having a bit of trouble figuring out who she's going to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One About the Redhead

The engine turned once, twice, three times before it caught, the bus shuddering in time with Charlie's heart. As nonchalant as she'd tried to appear when parting with Sam and Dean Winchester, her mind would not stop coming up with ways this newfound information--this whole other world--would affect her life. Would more monsters be after her now? Did they have her scent? Could leviathans track people?

She couldn't think about that, wouldn't think about that. It was too much for right now, when she'd just barely managed to escape that terrifying, breathtaking, amazing adventure with her life. What she needed to do was create her new identity, someone that wasn't named Charlie, Anna, or Christine, or even Celeste Middleton.

Alice Atwood? Elsa Card? Willow Clement? Any would work, but Charlie didn't take to one immediately. The rule was if she didn't like it the minute she thought of it, the name was a bad choice. 

Now that she thought about it, she wasn't sure she'd be able to come up with a name as good as Charlie Bradbury. It was a good name. Charlie Bradbury had had a good life. Charlie Bradbury wasn't really ready to go away, actually. 

No, no, no, she told herself. When your boss tries to get you to spy on someone's hardrive and turns out to be a monster that eats people and tries to eat you and you break your arm because you accidentally smuggled a ghost into the workplace that slammed you into a glass door and your entire world goes to shit you have to leave. Sorry. That's how it goes. No room for Charlie Bradbury anymore. 

Time to think of more names. 

Nancy Shelley, maybe, or Carrie Gibson? She liked Carrie, but Gibson was such a boring last name. What about--

"Excuse me?" A hand tapped her on the shoulder, and a million thoughts flashed through her mind. The leviathans had followed her, the police had come for her, the Winchesters weren't done with her after all. But when she turned around it was only the woman behind her, brown hair framing her soft face, an apologetic smile on her glossy lips. 

A flirty smile rose almost instinctively to Charlie's lips. "Hello," she said, lifting her left leg onto the seat and twisting around to face the woman, who was scratching the back of her neck awkwardly. Maybe this would be just the distraction she needed. 

"I just... This is kind of weird, but... Well... Are you a LARPer?"

Charlie blinked. 

"Sorry?" she asked. 

The woman's cheeks turned an adorably bright pink. "I... Um... Sorry, I'll just--"

"No, it's okay!" Charlie rushed to say. She was not going to pass up this opportunity. The woman was cute, and she desperately needed something to think about. And she knew was LARPing was, of course, how could she not? She certainly went to enough cons. "Are you?" she asked. 

The woman looked up through her eyelashes, and Charlie's smile got impossibly wider. This chick was something. Dean would've been proud of her. 

Wait, what? Where had that come from? Who cared what Dean Winchester thought? In a few hours, she'd be far away and never have to think about the Winchesters or their monsters again. Why did that make her feel guilty? Did she feel bad about leaving them behind? She didn't have any type of responsibility to fight these monsters. She shouldn't feel guilty at all. 

So why did she?

The woman behind Charlie interrupted her thought process, thank Merlin. "Yeah, I'm at Moondoor," she said, which made no sense, but Charlie was willing to run with it. So the woman was a little strange. Wasn't everyone?

The woman scratched the back of her neck again before thrusting her hand over the seat for Charlie to shake, and Charlie gladly shook. "I'm Elaine Brookfield," the woman said quickly, and looked relieved to have gotten the words out. 

"I'm Carrie." She froze. Elaine had mentioned a last name, so now Carrie needed one, too. "Carrie Heinlein," she said, and was happy with her choice. Carrie Heinlein. She was Carrie Heinlein, hello, all, my name is Carrie, no I don't kill people for fun, don't worry. It was the name of someone content, she thought, someone comfortable. Hopefully. And now it was her. 

"Sorry to bother you," Elaine said, her stutter apparently having left her lips alongside her name. 

"It's no trouble--"

"It's only that I thought I'd seen you at Moondoor, you know, as one of the beautiful maidens." Elaine's cheeks flamed redder than before and she quickly looked away, but Charlie--no, Carrie--thought she got her meaning. Was Elaine trying to flirt with her?

"I've never been LARPing," Carrie said. But Elaine wouldn't meet her eyes, so she found herself saying, "But it sounds like something I'd want to do, though I'm more of an elven warrior kinda girl, myself."

Elaine's eyes snapped up to meet Carrie's, wide in a hopeful gaze. Was that all it took?

"Well, if you want... I mean..." The stutter had apparently returned. "Moondoor has elves. Every other weekend. I mean, we all LARP every other weekend, not just the elves. But there are... Um... There are warrior elves. You know. If you want."

Carrie had never once considered LARPing to be in her interests, but in the last few minutes it had strangely gained a sort of appeal, coming from the pretty Elaine. This was quite the random conversation, but Carrie didn't find herself resenting it. 

"Why not?" she heard herself say, and it had the desired effect: Elaine's smile lit up the slightly depressing bus. 

Sure, she could LARP. Really, what could be so bad about it? She'd always wanted to live in Middle Earth, anyway. It was almost like reading, wasn't it? And she'd been to a couple Renaissance fairs. Couldn't be that bad. Especially if it meant hanging out with Elaine every other weekend. 

It would definitely keep her occupied at least, which was a plus. She usually found that keeping busy helped when assuming a new identity. 

She wasn't Charlie Bradbury anymore. She was Carrie and she didn't have to worry about her boss destroying the world, because that wasn't Carrie's problem. She would never have to see the Winchesters again. And no, that didn't make her sad. Why would that upset her?

She was Carrie Heinlein now, and Carrie Heinlein was about to start the best years of her life. 


End file.
